The Watchtower, September 15, 1955
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WATCHTOWER Announcing JEHOVAH'S
SEPTEMBER 15,1955 Semimonthly
WHAT DO THE SCRIPTURES SAY ABOUT "SURVIVAL AFTER DEATH"?
Announcing JEHOVAH'S KINGDOM
SECULAR PROGRESS AND SPIRITUAL SLOTH
WHO OR WHAT IS THE HOLY SPIRIT?
VISITING JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES IN CENTRAL AMERICA
"YOU ARE MY WITNESSES," SAYS JEHOVAH.—Isa. 43:12 THE PURPOSE OF "THE WATCHTOWER"
Literal towers in Bible times were elevated vantage points from which watchmen could observe happenings, warn of danger, or announce good news. Our magazine figuratively occupies such a vantage point, for it is founded on the very pinnacle of wisdom, God's Word. That elevates it above racial, national and political propagandas and prejudices, frees it from selfish bias. It is not bound by any traditional creed, but its message advances as the light on God's purposes and works increases.—Habakkuk 2:1-3.
It sees things Scripturally. When it observes this generation afflicted with greed, delinquency, hypocrisy, atheism, war, famine, pestilence, perplexity and fear, and persecution of unpopular minorities, it does not parrot the old fable about history repeating itself. Informed by Bible prophecy, it sees in these things the sign of the world's time of the end. But with bright hope it also sees opening up for us just beyond these woes the portals of a new world.
Thus viewed, "The Watchtower" stands as a watchman atop a tower, alert to what is going on, awake to note signs of danger, faithful to point out the way of escape. It announces Jehovah's kingdom established by Christ's enthronement in heaven, feeds his kingdom joint-heirs with spiritual food, cheers men of good will with glorious prospects of eternal life in a paradise earth, comforts us with the resurrection promise for the dead.
It is not dogmatic, but has a confident ring in its voice, because it is based on God's Word. It does not privately interpret prophecy, but calls attention to physical facts, sets them alongside prophecy, and you see for yourself how well the two match, how accurately Jehovah interprets his own prophecy. In the interests of our salvation, it keeps sharp and faithful focus on Bible truth, and views religious news generally.
'Be watchful in these perilous times,' God admonishes. So keep on the watch by regularly reading "The Watchtower".
PUBLISHED BY THE WATCH TOWER BIBLE & TRACT SOCIETY
117 Adams Street Brooklyn 1, N. Y., U. S. A.
N. H. KNORR, President GRANT SUITER, Secretary
"They will all be taught by Jehovah."—John 6:45, NW; Isaiah 54:13
<tr><th>CONTENTS
Secular Progress and Spiritual Sloth
Preaching by Seven-Year-Old Bears Fruit
Who or What Is the Holy Spirit?
Visiting Jehovah's Witnesses in Central America (Part 5)
Modern History of Jehovah's Witnesses<br>Part 18: Second World War's Christian Neutrals in British Commonwealth
What Do the Scriptures Say About "Survival After Death"? (Part 2)
Questions from Readers
Announcements
Check Your Memory
<tr><th>Abbreviations used in "The Watchtower" for the following Bible versions
AS - American Standard Version
LXX - The Septuagint Version
AT - An American Translation
Mo - James Moffatt's version
Da - J. N. Darby's version
NW - New World Translation
Dy - Catholic Douay version
Ro - J. B. Rotherham's version
ED - The Emphatic Diaglott
RS - Revised Standard Version
Le - Isaac Leeser's version
Yg - Robert Young's version
Unless otherwise indicated, the Bible used is the King James Version
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Secular Progress and Spiritual Sloth
THE weeds of spiritual sloth tend to thrive in the sunlight of secular progress. Little wonder that this modern world confuses technical knowledge with wisdom. It assumes that secular or worldly progress automatically raises intellectual and spiritual standards. The opposite is generally true. Secular progress has promoted the weedlike growth of intellectual immaturity and spiritual sloth, a dearth of true wisdom and a vacuum in spiritual vitality. Secular progress has deceived people into believing that happiness and life result from the things they possess. At the same time secular progress has blinded people to the widespread spiritual sloth, which, in turn, leads to perils of far-reaching consequence.
One of those perils was described recently by Dr. Arthur Clinton, director of the New York city Bureau of Attendance, who explained that the luxuries of secular progress have so preoccupied parents that they tend to neglect the spiritual lives of their children with a disastrous result: child crime. This is because a spiritually slothful home, explains Dr. Clinton, is just as much a breeding ground for delinquency as a home physically broken by divorce.
Agreeing with this is the head of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, J. Edgar Hoover. Speaking from thirty years' experience he said: "Invariably when you
analyze the reasons for criminal actions, certain facts stand out, stark and revealing the faith of our fathers, the love of God, and the observance of His Commandments either have been thrust aside or they never existed in the heart of the transgressor. The secular way of thinking must give way to the spiritual, if our nation is to stand. What we need most in this country are the things unseen . . . spiritual development, moral power."
Those words of F.B.I. chief Hoover were quoted in Pennsylvania's Altoona Tribune of March 25,1955, after which the newspaper editorial went on to say: "In short, we, as a people, simply are ignorant in matters of the spiritual. We are incompetent. We do not know how to go about it! We acknowledge the vital importance of the spiritual, as attested by the vast and increasing church membership in this country. We superficially, perhaps, accept and practice certain religious precepts. But, how pitiful is the sum total of our spiritual knowledge and development as compared with our secular progress!"
If spiritual sloth, nourished and camouflaged by secular progress, is dangerous to children, it is deadly for adults. Yet myriads of people today make financial security their final goal in life. Others make their life consist of a futile quest for happiness through possessions. Where nations produce abundantly, few persons are able to lift themselves above the vacuous mental state of a nation of shoppers.
Subtle advertising induces moderns to believe that the highest virtues are the pursuit of pleasures and material possessions. Advertising creates a promised land to be gained by alert purchases and prompt installment payments. And so moderns push zestfully toward their goal of a gadgeted Utopia of streamlined, plasticized beauty in which there need be no human effort except to be worthy of the bright new mechanical perfections.
It is a delusion, this belief that possessions and the blessing of financial security will more than adequately compensate for spiritual losses. Many persons allow the delusion to mushroom into a Frankenstein that destroys all spiritual life; others let it dictate their lives till they think that real living means keeping up with one's neighbors in the possession of gadgets and that
parental duty requires protecting one's children, not from the danger of spiritual sloth, but from the sense of inferiority certain to follow the selfish retention of last year's car. It is a deadly delusion Many will not find this out until it is too late.
Certainly the Founder of Christianity never taught that possessions brought spiritual enrichment, happiness or life. Rather he taught that, unless one places God's kingdom first, possessions can lead to loss of life, losing out on the hope of everlasting life in God's new world. So Jesus' warning applies with protective force in this day when secular progress fosters the growth of spiritual sloth: "Be on the alert and on guard against every kind of covetousness, because even when a person has an abundance his life does not result from the things he possesses." Luke 12:15, NW.
Preaching by Seven-Year-Old Bears Fruit
It happened in a country school in Italy. When asked by his schoolteacher to write on a religious theme, a certain young minister of Jehovah would always write about the true worship of Jehovah God. At times he would come home with tears in his eyes because his teacher had torn up his essay. At Christmas time this young minister was required to memorize a poem about Christmas. However, when it came to reciting it in class, before a miniature manger, he stood his ground, giving as the reasons for refusing to do so quotations from Psalm 115 and Exodus 20. The teacher, upon looking up these texts in his Bible, was surprised to note that what this young minister had told him was indeed the truth. Interested in knowing more about this strange religion, the teacher visited the parents, who were only too glad to answer his many questions. He continued to take in knowledge concerning Jehovah and his purposes and as he progressed he overcame the obstacles presenting themselves because of fear of man. Before long he took his stand and dedicated himself to Jehovah and was baptized. Today, not only are he, his wife and his child regular attenders at the congregational meetings of Jehovah's witnesses, but both he and his wife are zealously preaching the good news from house to house; the fruits borne by the preaching of a seven-year-old.
Who or What
Holy Spirit?
MOST persons in Christendom have a rather vague
idea about the holy spirit. They may remember that the holy spirit appeared as a dove at the time Jesus was baptized and in the form of tongues of fire at Pentecost, but that is all. While they may feel certain the holy spirit is a person, the fact remains that "there was some indistinctness in the teachings of Justin Martyr and others of the early church fathers concerning the spirit," as to being a person.
To understand a Scriptural subject it is always well to begin by going to the original tongue. Thus in the Christian Greek Scriptures the word "spirit" with two exceptions translates the Greek word pneuma, from which we get the words pneumatic and pneumonia. Pneuma, however, is translated not only "spirit" 288 times, but also
"ghost" 91 times, "wind once, "life" once, "spiritually" once and "spiritual gift" once. (King James Version) That "ghost" is a mistranslation is generally recognized.
The Greek word pneuma
literally means "wind" and it will help us to understand our subject when we note that in all the various ways in which it is used it is like the wind in that it is invisible and powerful, showing itself in visible effects. Thus it is used to refer to invisible persons: "God is a Spirit." Christ Jesus "the last Adam became a
life-giving spirit" at his resurrection. Angels are "all spirits for public service." John 4:24;1 Cor.15:45; Heb. 1:14, NW.
The general opinion in Christendom is that the
"Spirit" at times describes the invisible and impersonal life force in man and animals: "So they entered . . . two and two of all flesh wherein was the spirit of life." At death this life force or invisible "spirit returns to God who gave it." "Spirit" is also used to refer to our mental disposition: "He who rules his spirit [is better] than he who takes a city."—Gen. 7:15, Ro; Eccl. 12:7; Prov. 16:32, RS.
holy spirit is a person, "the third person of the Trinity," coequal and coeternal with God. Does the Bible show the holy spirit to be a person? If not, then what is it?
However, the use of "spirit" that specially interests us is where it is usually
translated by capitals and used in relation to God and Christ as "Spirit" and "the Holy Spirit." In these instances is a separate person indicated or does it refer to something impersonal as "spirit of life" and "the spirit of man"?
IMPERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS
If in such instances a
separate person is referred to, then many texts of the Bible simply do not make sense. For example, Jesus was to baptize with holy spirit and with fire, just as John had baptized with water. Persons can be baptized with water and with fire but can they be baptized with a bodily person? Can we imagine a person splitting himself up and distributing himself bit by bit to the one hundred and twenty disciples present at Pentecost and then filling each one of them?
Can we think of Jesus receiving from his Father this holy spirit "person" and then shedding or pouring forth, like liquid fire, this person upon those disciples? Is that reasonable?—Matt. 3:11; Acts 2:1-4, 17; 11:16, NW.
Further, Christians are told not to quench the spirit. Not quench a person? God's servants of old were said to have been enveloped or clothed by his spirit. Enveloped by a person? More such examples could be given but these should suffice to show that it simply does not make sense to attribute personality to "spirit" in such instances. Then what is this holy spirit? It is God's active force, not just God's power residing in him, but that power in action.—Judg. 6:34, NW;1 Thess. 5:19.
What has helped to obscure this truth is that translators have twisted their versions according to their religious prejudices, as in their unwarranted rendering of pneuma as "ghost" and as in their capitalizing holy spirit. To make holy spirit seem to be a person they have also added the definite article "the" in 105 instances before the words "spirit" or "holy spirit," where the original does not have it. Either the original writers of the Christian Greek Scriptures were extremely negligent or disrespectful of the "Holy Spirit" in leaving out the definite article or else those who attribute personality to the holy spirit are sadly mistaken.
Throwing light on this subject are the words of Jesus: "Every kind of sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but the blasphemy against the spirit will not be forgiven. For example, whoever speaks a word against the Son of man, it will be forgiven him; but whoever speaks against the holy spirit, it will not be forgiven him, no, not in the present system of things nor in
that to come." Jesus' words here defy explanation if the holy spirit is the third person of a coequal trinity, but they do make sense when we consider it as God's active force. By means of this active force Jesus had cast out demons, and his opposers, in attributing this manifestation of God's holy spirit or active force to the Devil, were blaspheming the holy spirit. Sins against God and Christ can be forgiven because such could be due to ignorance, but sins against a manifestation of God's holy spirit are willful, deliberate and malicious, and so for such there is no forgiveness. Matt. 12:31, 32; Heb. 10:26, NW.
CONSIDERING OBJECTIONS
Perhaps by now someone will object, saying, Did not Jesus use personal pronouns in referring to the holy spirit? True, but only when personalizing the holy spirit in its role of paraclete, comforter or helper, which nouns are in the masculine gender in Greek. It was in this capacity that the holy spirit was poured out upon them at Pentecost, they thereby receiving comfort, help, power and understanding for the work they were to do. Many times in the Scriptures impersonal things are personalized, and so Jesus in this connection used the personal pronouns because he had personalized the holy spirit as a helper or comforter.—John 14:26; 15:26.
However, he also used impersonal pronouns in referring to this "spirit of truth" which he would not have done had it been a person. "The spirit of the truth, which the world cannot receive, because it neither beholds it nor knows it. You know it, because it remains with you and is in you." While some use the personal pronouns in this text, the fact that both Rotherham and Goodspeed, eminent Greek scholars, also use impersonal pronouns indicates that the use of personal pronouns is due to religious bias.—John 14:17, NW. But do we not read of the holy spirit's speaking, guiding and leading, and do not such terms indicate personality?
Not necessarily. God's invisible active force can do all these things even though not a person. To illustrate: By means of radio, city officials can keep in touch with all police patrol cars, instructing, guiding and advising them, but that does not mean that the radio is a separate person, does it? Again, the chief of state makes a speech and a news commentator quotes him over the radio. It would be equally correct to refer to it as something that the radio said, that the news commentator said or that the chief of state said, depending upon the viewpoint.
The same is true regarding the Scriptures. Concerning the prophecies we are told that God spoke, that the spirit of Christ testified and that the holy spirit caused them to be uttered, all of which is correct, for all things are of the Father, through the Son and by the holy spirit. —Zech. 4:6, AS;1 Cor. 8:6; Heb. 1:1; 1 Pet. 1:11, margin;2 Pet. 1:21,NW.
Because all things are of the Father, through the Son and by the holy spirit, we repeatedly find them linked together as at Matthew 28:19 and 2 Corinthians 13:14. Such linking together, however, does not prove that all three are persons or that they must be equal. How could they be equal when we read that the Father sent the Son and the Son sent the holy spirit? The sender is always superior to the one being sent.
Does the fact that the holy spirit is said to appoint servants in the Christian congregation, as at Acts 13:2 and 20:28, prove that it is a person, as some claim? Not at all. In that the men who made such appointments, as Paul instructed Titus, were
filled with the holy spirit and motivated by it, we can say that such appointments were made by the holy spirit.—Tit. 1:5, NW.
But surely the statement that "the spirit searches into all things, even the deep things of God," proves that it has personality, others claim. Not necessarily. Since what we ourselves do with help of God's active force can be said to have been done by it, we can say that it searches, meaning that the holy spirit helps us in our searching of God's Word. A similar thought is found in the statement that "the spirit itself bears witness with our spirit that we are God's children," meaning that God's spirit or active force by aiding in the understanding of his Word bears witness with the mental disposition of those composing the body of Christ that they are indeed sons of God.—1 Cor. 2:10; Rom. 8:16, NW.
To hold that the holy spirit is not a person is not belittling, disparaging or slighting it, but giving it its just due, for, look where we will in the Scriptures, we do not find it treated as a person. Repeatedly Jehovah's servants had visions of heaven, such as Daniel, Stephen and the apostle John; each time they saw representations of Jehovah God and of his Son, the Son of man, the Lamb of God, but did they ever see a representation of the holy spirit as a person? The very fact that it appeared as a dove and as many tongues of fire indicates that it is not a person.
Yes, all the Scriptural testimony explicitly shows that either the holy spirit is not a person or it is of such nature that it can be harmonized with impersonality. It is Jehovah's active force, invisible and powerful, sent forth to accomplish his purpose.
IT IS a short but pleasant flight from Maracaibo to Aruba, Netherlands Antilles. Just before leaving the mainland you see the many oil derricks out in the lake pumping "black gold" into tankers that ply the Caribbean over to Aruba, there to be taken to large refineries and then transported to all parts of the world.
When the Society's president, N. H. Knorr, landed at Aruba many were there to greet him; and though there for only a few hours, he was whisked away to a new Kingdom Hall being built in Oranjestad. The windows were not even in, nor the porch fixed up, but the brothers had cleaned it, brought in chairs and tastefully decorated it with flowers and wanted him to make the first speech there. Pleasant it was to talk to forty-four of them, and seemingly all understood English, so no interpreter was needed. Excitement prevailed, because that very afternoon a chartered plane was to fly from Aruba to Curaçao with some forty Kingdom publishers who were going to the general convention for the Netherlands Antilles.
But before any got away Brother Knorr was taken to a radio station where an interview was held and broadcast.
The days from December 31, 1954, to January 3, 1955, were busy ones in Curacao. The program called for four lectures and these had to be given through interpreters. Meetings with missionaries and pioneers, checking over the branch office and answering mail that was waiting for his arrival kept the president busy.
The assembly hall was within walking distance of the center of town. With 181 in attendance, the convention got off to a very good start, but the first sessions (New Year's Eve) were carried on through a noisy time. There was no cause for the noise in the convention hall, but outside were the folks of the Netherlands Antilles who like to celebrate New Year's Eve with firecrackers. There everybody was celebrating and it was rather dangerous to be out on the streets because one never knew when some large firecracker would be exploding at his heels. A custom of Willemstadt's people seems to be to assemble on Brionplein (the plaza) near the pontoon bridge. Here, just before midnight on the year's last day, thousands congregate. As the new year comes in the real noise starts. It is deafening, including not only firecrackers but, at the stroke of twelve o'clock, all ship sirens, all bells, all whistles unitedly sound off. Then, too, the cannon on the fort across the inlet is fired and everyone around town starts yelling "Bon Anja" ("Happy New Year"). At height of this commotion the Roman Catholic bishop appears on his balcony, overlooking the plaza. From that second-story balcony he blesses the great crowd, the more religious ones of which crowd kneel before him. Not a thing he says can be heard by any of them because of the terrific noise, but they assume that they have been blessed.
So Christendom brings in its new year with gunfire, firecrackers and overwhelming noise. Some think that by shooting off firecrackers they scare away demons, but it appears from this occurrence that what happens at the opening of the new year is what such celebrators try to keep on doing during the rest of the year—shooting bullets, cannons, dropping bombs and, instead of using little firecrackers, using large ones that kill and destroy. So one might think, from all of this turmoil and fuss, that that is the way the world likes to have it for the rest of the 365 days of each year; and in many instances that is just the way they get it, and the people suffer.
On January 1, while the majority of the people in town were getting over their New Year's Eve nightmares, Jehovah's witnesses were conducting an early morning immersion service, eight persons being baptized. The convention went on with real enthusiasm, thinking only of praising Jehovah's name and announcing his kingdom. It was a pleasure to observe the fine distribution of magazines throughout the Netherlands Antilles. Two missionaries had placed over 2,000 magazines each during 1954. Generally, distribution of magazines throughout this territory by all publishers has been very good.
Sunday night 302 persons assembled for the public talk. On January 4 this same talk was given in the Kingdom Hall in the Papiamento language to an audience of 70. This brought to a close a blessed assembly.
The Netherlands Antilles branch office of the Society reports good progress. In February there were 103 publishers afield praising Jehovah's name; and it is believed many more persons of good will in Aruba, Curaçao and Bonaire, the territory under this branch, will grow in knowledge, understanding and appreciation of their responsibilities.
JAMAICA
Scattered all over this beautiful island in the Caribbean Sea are many of Jehovah's witnesses. They are preaching the good news of the Kingdom and they continually find many more who desire life.
Here a stop was made by the Society's president to enable him to check some branch matters. While there, arrangements were also made for him to speak to the congregation of Jehovah's witnesses. To a public meeting at 7 p.m. 3,120 came, a race-track grandstand being used. It was packed out. People were seated in chairs set on the ground just in front of the grandstand and many others stood. In Jamaica there are a number of brothers who have been in the truth for many, many years, and these have seen the fine growth of the New World society. It gladdens the heart now to see thousands in the organization where some years ago there were only hundreds. Much remains to be done to bring the new associates to maturity so that they, too, can take on the whole load of responsibility. Brothers in the city of Kingston have co-operated very well in building Kingdom Halls, and they have a number of congregations scattered at convenient places throughout the city, each having its own Kingdom Hall. The halls are beautifully designed and well equipped. The president's stay was much too short for a three-day convention or for traveling to other parts of the island. His work here being accomplished, he had to hasten away to Havana, Cuba.
CUBA
When it became known that the president of the Society would visit Cuba January 7-9, to attend a three-day assembly, enthusiasm ran high. In the brothers' minds the big question was, Where shall we hold the convention? A number of places were visited but it was not until they got in touch with the Havana Greyhound Kennel Club that final arrangements were worked out.
The place is known as the Cinódromo, used for dog racing. It has fine facilities. After talking with the local operators, Jehovah's witnesses in Cuba became aware that an American organization in Miami, Florida, had this place under contract. So the branch office got in touch with them and word came back that if an organization like Jehovah's witnesses wanted it they could have it. The brothers immediately got to work fixing up the place for the convention.
Of course, the Cuban brothers wanted to make this a big event, so they printed two-color handbills for announcing the public talk "This Good News of the Kingdom." The branch has a small printing plant that turned out 200,000 handbills, 2,500 window signs and 2,500 placards used by the publishers in advertising. Special letters of invitation also were prepared, and large signs (6 feet by 70 feet) also were made and put up at different places. There were special arrangements for rail travel, and chartered buses to bring delegates from all parts of Cuba to Havana. Advertising was done in theaters, radio announcements were broadcast, interviews arranged, and newspapers gave excellent publicity. A goodly number of the brothers came in early Thursday and they inquired as to the time of arrival of the president of the Society, and many of them came out to the airport to meet him. In fact, twenty buses were rented by them to bring out the crowd. It was estimated that 800 to 1,000 brothers were on hand to greet the Society's president. Quite a few newspaper reporters and movie news cameramen also were on hand to interview Brother Knorr. The airport has a powerful radio station, with studios in the Air Terminal building; and as soon as the president got through immigration and customs he was hurried
to the studios of this station for a personal interview. A clear, to-the-point description of the work of Jehovah's witnesses was given, being immediately interpreted into Spanish. A number of newspapers came out with articles about Jehovah's witnesses, four radio stations granted time for interviews, and television showed excellent scenes of the president's arrival as well as Sunday afternoon's sessions at the time the public meeting was on.
As far as Cubans were concerned the convention of Jehovah's witnesses was general knowledge and the people showed real interest in it. The Cinodrome itself was not big enough to handle all the crowd expected, so 1,000 chairs were rented and placed in the shade under the grandstand. With these extra chairs a total seating capacity of about 4,500 was provided. When the public talk was delivered Sunday afternoon the attendance was 4,574. The people very much appreciated the plain, simple and clear-cut statements given, extemporaneously, first in English by N. H. Knorr, a sentence at a time, and immediately its interpretation into Spanish by Brother R. M. Gonzalez, a member of the branch office in Havana. The sound equipment was excellent and the lecture was well heard in all parts of the stands.
It seemed that this convention was excitement from the time that the president arrived until the entire event was over. Everything moved fast. There were many high points, one of which was the arrival of the Society's vice-president. Brother Franz came in a few hours after Brother Knorr, flying specially from New York for this convention. He was on the program several times and gave an excellent report on his November trip to Scotland, where he was principal witness on behalf of the Society in a court case. He also gave very helpful admonition and the brothers were greatly pleased because Brother Franz could speak Spanish, requiring no interpreter, whereas Brother Knorr, speaking only English, always had an interpreter.
A very fine cafeteria having been established, the brothers' physical needs were exceptionally well cared for besides their being fed well spiritually. Speakers at the convention included also a number of the circuit and district servants and those of the branch office.
The local authorities at the Cinódromo voiced surprise at the tremendous amount of publicity that Jehovah's witnesses were given in the newspapers. They were amazed at the orderliness of all the brothers, for such had never before been seen at that place, a race track frequented by people of all walks of life, having no love for one another. But, of course, Jehovah's witnesses do have love for their neighbors. Then, too, each day the grounds were being kept so clean that at the convention's end there was not a speck of dirt. Indeed, some workmen of the race track who were assigned there during the convention worked right along with the brothers, co-operating excellently and to the fullest extent. The baptismal service, too, was a high light, 83 (34 men and 49 women) symbolizing their dedication to Jehovah God.
A special session was arranged for circuit and district servants and this was conducted principally by the Society's president, who answered their questions. A fine meeting was held with pioneers, 270 being present. In Cuba there is a big field for pioneering, just as in all other parts of the world.
Jehovah's witnesses to come in and use their facilities.
So much favorable comment had been caused by this convention that even the owner of another large arena, The Stadium Tropical, telephoned the branch office, saying that should their stadium be wanted for the big assembly in 1955 it ought to be applied for some time in March to get in their schedule. They were very anxious for
In talking with the brothers it was observed that they were strengthened by what they had heard, the good counsel and heart-cheering Bible information greatly encouraging all. Everyone was happy because of having come to this assembly. All seemed determined to return to their respective congregations and to fight harder for the truth, maintain their integrity and joyfully give a greater witness for Jehovah's kingdom.
The Cubans very much appreciate the good news and they, along with all of Jehovah's witnesses world-wide, will continue to show their gratitude to Jehovah God. They want to make the name of Jehovah widely known and to preach the good news of his kingdom in all their land.
Brother Knorr and Brother Franz were very grateful that they could visit with their Cuban brothers, and they believed this convention would mark a big forward step in the Cuban work.
CONCLUSION
This trip by the president, through Mexico, Central America, part of South America and some of the Caribbean islands, brought much joy to his heart. A number of years ago he visited some of these countries. Many of them he has visited three and four times, some twice; but when he reflects, looking back to 1942 when no missionaries had been sent out and when only a few pioneers and a few part-time ministers were preaching in some of these countries, it certainly warms the heart now to see the grand increase. For example, in 1942 the publisher's chart said: Honduras, one publisher; Colombia, two; Netherlands Antilles, one; Nicaragua, two; Venezuela, one.
During the two months he was away on this trip of 1954-1955 the president visited thirteen countries in this area.
In 1942 there were 3,005 publishers. Now, just thirteen years later, in the 1955 service year, there are 30,363. So in thirteen years those thirteen countries combined have ten times as many publishers, a 900 per cent increase. What an increase! It shows that it pays to send out missionaries, and when these stay in their assignments, working hard and gathering together the "other sheep," such in turn also will become good ministers and the work will further multiply by leaps and bounds. Jehovah's spirit is upon his people. Now is the time when this good news of the Kingdom must be preached in all the world for a witness, and Jehovah's witnesses know that. So with joy, with growing gladness, they courageously press on, not only in this part of the earth but everywhere, happy in these days of the "Triumphant Kingdom."
MODERN HISTORY of Jehovah's Witnesses
Part 18 SECOND WORLD WAR'S CHRISTIAN NEUTRALS IN BRITISH COMMONWEALTH
IN THE "Battle of Britain"—including its terrible ordeal of air war—less than a dozen of the more than 12,000 witnesses of Jehovah then residing in the British Isles lost their lives. True, many witnesses suffered injury and lost their homes and Kingdom Halls in the Nazi air "blitz"; nevertheless, they kept right on in their way of worshiping Jehovah, the living God. House-to-house preaching they maintained at a high level. Congregational meetings had to be transferred to Sunday afternoons to avoid dangers of night air attacks, but all such were regularly held. The great preaching campaign, which kept on operating and expanding even in those war years, brought much comfort and hope to thousands of honest-hearted ones.
Large zone assemblies were held right on schedule as if no war existed, some sessions even being held during actual bombing raids. In a night raid Manchester's large Free Trade Hall was demolished just
after Jehovah's witnesses had completed their 1940 national convention in that city. Most amazing was the convention held at Leicester, September 3-7, 1941, where some 12,000 witnesses assembled for a five-day theocratic festival amid war's intense heat. In the face of unfriendly forces, almost insurmountable obstacles at every turn had to be overcome—as to feeding, accommodation and transportation—to assemble such a vast number. The recordings of Judge Rutherford's principal lectures at the St. Louis convention the month before in the United States had been sent by air mail to London just in time for the censors to clear for this British convention. What a spiritual lift this assembly proved to be! What a spirit of unity and loving cooperation was manifested! It strengthened all to endure the trials of the war years. a
An embargo was placed on receiving shipments of literature from Brooklyn.
Then ensued a struggle for paper supplies to enable the Society to undertake and carry forward fairly large printing operations inside Britain, for keeping up the flow of publications into the field where a large band of active pioneers was serving many thousands who realized their spiritual need. Later, importation of the Watchtower magazine was banned as sent to subscribers in the British Isles. However, local printing of a form containing the main study articles of The Watchtower was not prohibited, and thus there came to be no interruption of the monthly spiritual-feeding program for hundreds of weekly Watchtower study meetings; the British brothers being spiritually kept fully abreast with their American associates. Several pioneer homes were supported in various large cities to keep the pioneer service operating in areas where congregation publishers were few.
Military exemption was refused to the brothers by many of the judges at the tribunals. This meant that 1,593 convictions followed, with total prison-sentence time exceeding six centuries. Of these,
344 were convictions of women who, equally with men, were required to spend time in prison for failing to accept national direction to perform war duties. b In Britain there was total regimentation of both males and females. Prior to the war many witnesses had fled
as refugees from Poland, Germany, Austria, Belgium, and, finally, France. These refugees had become pioneers in Britain, but later, when the war intensified, the government interned them in a camp on the Isle of Man for the duration of the war. Also American and Swiss nationals of the
witnesses were deported from the British Isles.
So, despite heavy restrictions and war limitations, Jehovah's witnesses in Britain maintained their neutrality, keeping their integrity to their God. The fight for freedom to worship Jehovah did not subside or die out in Britain. Rather it was waged more intensively than ever before.
In Canada, too, the story of the exploits of Jehovah's witnesses became truly thrilling. In earlier years of the Society the work in Canada developed under the Brooklyn office along with the American congregations. Eventually, in 1918, a separate branch office was established in Winnipeg. c Then after the close of World War I, and shortly after removal of the ban against the witnesses in Canada January 1, 1920, the Society's Canadian office was transferred to Toronto. d In 1925 the charitable corporation named INTERNATIONAL BIBLE STUDENTS ASSOCIATION OF CANADA was organized, it becoming the owner of the branch headquarters property. e The work advanced fairly well through the years but, due to the deflection
of some, administrative changes were necessary in 1936. Better spiritual conditions resulted, with a greater forward movement in the witness work. f All along, in Catholic Quebec strong opposition was encountered, including continued arrests. However, the real
"Battle of Quebec" came to be reserved for oncoming postwar years, as we shall later see.
On July 4,1940, at the peak of Hitler's European conquests, the then Canadian minister of justice Ernest la Pointe, a Quebec Catholic, passed an order in council that placed a total ban on the activities of Jehovah's witnesses and their Canadian corporation, the I.B.S.A.
of Canada. With war reversals at their peak for the democracies, Jehovah's witnesses were made easy scapegoats. A modern Inquisition followed. Spying upon neighbors was encouraged, homes were raided, private libraries seized, Bible meetings broken up, Memorial celebrations interrupted, and even copies of the well-known King James Version of the Bible were confiscated and ordered destroyed. The press was bitter in its attacks. These outrages swept from one end of the country to the other. While all this took the Canadian witnesses suddenly by surprise, they by no means took it lying down. There soon followed the build-up of an extensive efficient underground system that enabled them to meet in small groups for Bible study and to carry on their preaching activities. Though men had placed a ban upon them these zealous preachers of the kingdom of Jehovah were convinced that He, the living God, had placed no ban on their worship of Him and their sincere efforts to do His will. Therefore, in obeying God rather than men they were following a course pleasing to their heavenly Father even though it meant suffering punishment at the hand of earthly authorities who presumed to interfere with man's free worship of Almighty God. (Acts 5:29) At length some five thousand publishers got back on their feet again, carrying on back-call and Bible study work. One morning in November, 1940, these "locusts" rose early and flooded the country from one end to the other in a "blitz" witness placing hundreds of thousands of copies of a special booklet under the doors
of the homes, entitled "End of Nazism." This display of courageous activity terrified their enemies. The opposers were able to arrest only ten. As the war years progressed other such daring exploits continued to keep up the flow of spiritual food to persons of good will. 1
For nearly two years Jehovah's witnesses suffered in silence, gagged so far as opportunity of lodging formal protest and making any defense was concerned. Then, in June, 1942, opportunity was granted to them to make representations to a Select Committee of the House of Commons on the Defense of Canada Regulations. The committee unanimously recommended that the ban be lifted on the legal corporations of Jehovah's witnesses, but the minister of justice refused to recall his banning order. Opposition to the ban began to be widespread, not only among units of the liberal press, but also in debate in the House of Commons. Finally, on October 15, 1943, the ban on the unincorporated society of Jehovah's witnesses was lifted, but not the ban on their legal corporations. This partial removal of the ban still made it impossible to reopen the Toronto Bethel branch headquarters. In June, 1944, a national petition was circulated, to which 223,448 signatures were obtained, requesting the removal of the ban on the I.B.S.A. of Canada. However, before the petition was presented the government decided to remove the corporation ban on June 13, 1944.
From the partial removal of the ban in October, 1943, the Canadian brothers made a rush to engage Kingdom Halls and advertise them as in preban days. In 1940, when the ban was placed upon the Canadian work, there was an average of 6,081 publishers, but when the ban was lifted three years later in June, 1944, there were 10,345 workers participating. k Truly a sizable increase during days of restraint, showing that worship of Jehovah cannot be stamped out.
Persecution rather stimulates theocratic increase. The growth of the New World society in Canada continues to be remarkable, impressive and healthy. They are well able and ready to withstand any opposition.
In Australia religious leaders began to encourage political action against the energetic witnesses, also, from July, 1940, onward. On January 16, 1941, Prime Minister Menzies prematurely announced in Parliament his government's proposal to ban Jehovah's witnesses. The next day, January 17, the Order-in-Council was gazetted restraining the activities of the Society and its legal corporations, including the Adelaide Company of Jehovah's witnesses which owned a Kingdom Hall building that the government soon took over. The Bethel headquarters were also taken and occupied by the government. 1 It is regrettable to report, however, that during the period of the ban many of the witnesses did not carry out a strict course of Christian neutrality. Rather, many of them participated in enterprises that gave aid to the nation's war effort. Later the brothers realized their error and repented. m
A test was made of the government's action to ban the activities of the Adelaide Company of Jehovah's witnesses, Inc., which finally was heard in the High Court of Australia. The court gave a four-to-one victory to the witnesses. It held that the Order-in-Council, banning Jehovah's witnesses in Australia, was illegal and ultra vires. The court ruled that the witnesses were not engaged in any seditious enterprise or engaged in publishing or printing literature that was seditious within the meaning of the criminal law of Australia. Further, the court said that they were not
prejudicial to the official prosecution of the war. n Thus the brothers "down under" were also released from their restraints, to take up again their preaching activities. They, too, were victors in their fight for freedom to worship Almighty God against religious opposers.
As the Catholic-Nazi-Fascist war drive stampeded throughout Europe, bans, imprisonments and legal restrictions came upon our European associates in France, Spain, Poland, Belgium, Greece, Bulgaria, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands, Rumania, Yugoslavia, Estonia, Finland, Denmark and Norway. The continent of Africa, too, was affected, where restraints were placed upon the witnesses in Northern Rhodesia, Southern Rhodesia, Nigeria and the Gold Coast. What happened in Europe was duplicated in Asia and the Pacific area when the Japanese steam roller was set in motion in 1941. Bitter persecution of the witnesses and bannings ensued in Japan itself, the Philippine Islands, Burma, Malaya, Straits Settlements, Netherlands East Indies (now Indonesia), Fiji, New Zealand, India and Ceylon. This represented a veritable global demon attack on the witnesses. In each of these countries the story is one of their Christian courage in standing firm for neutrality and continuing in Jehovah's worship, even though underground. Upon the winning of the war in 1945 by the democracies (the symbolic "earth"), the "river" of Catholic-Nazi-Fascist world conspiracy to destroy theocratic freedom was fully swallowed up in total defeat. Truly the "earth" helped God's people. (Rev. 12:16, NW) This enabled the surviving witnesses to return to their "aboveground" public activities in performing their ministry of comfort to mankind and reconciliation with God. 0
(To be continued) What do the SCRIPTURES say about "SURVIVAL after DEATH"?
PART2
In Part I of this three-part serial the reader was shown that in past and present centuries psychic or mediumistic occult practices have been seriously recognized and adopted by high military, civic and religious leaders of Christendom and heathendom, thereby startling some of the common people on their learning of such conduct by those leaders. History, both secular and Biblical, proves that even in most ancient times leaders of men seriously relied upon unseen spirit forces for comfort, advance information or guidance. Such spiritistic phenomena baffle modern scientists who, with their sensitive instruments, have carefully investigated. The rapidly spreading modern religion, Spiritualism, insists such unseen forces really are 'immortal souls' of men, women and children who lived and died on earth. Flatly contradicting such claim of spiritualists, the Bible consistently and uniformly teaches that the human soul dies.
BUT where are the scriptures that say in so many words that the human soul dies? At Numbers 23:10 (NW) the prophet Balaam is inspired by Jehovah God to say: "Let my soul die the death of the upright ones, and let my end turn out afterward like theirs." Other verses (NW) on soul death read: "You must deliver our souls from death." "Our souls are to die instead of you people!" (Josh. 2:13, 14) "Zebulun was a people that
scorned their souls to the point of death." (Judg. 5:18) "His soul got to be impatient to the point of dying. . . . Samson proceeded to say: 'Let my soul die with the Phi.lis'- tines.'" (Judg. 16:16, 30) "And he [the prophet Elijah] began to ask that his soul might die and to say: 'It is enough! Now, O Jehovah, take my soul away, for I am no better than my forefathers.'" (1 Ki. 19:4) Also: "Their soul dieth in youth, and their life among the defiled." (Job 36:14, Yg; Da; Ro; Le) "To deliver their soul from death, and to keep them alive in famine." (Ps. 33:19) "He spared not their soul from death, but gave their life over to the pestilence." (Ps. 78:50) "Thou hast delivered my soul from death." (Ps. 116:8) "He hath poured out his soul unto death." (Isa. 53:12) "Will ye pollute me among my people for handfuls of barley and for pieces of bread, to slay the souls that should not die, and to save the souls alive that should not live, by your lying to my people that hear your lies?" (Ezek. 13:19) "The soul that sinneth, it shall die." —Ezek. 18:4, 20.
2 But did you ever hear of a dead or deceased soul? Here is where the Bible uses such an expression: "You must not make cuts in your flesh for a deceased soul." (Lev. 19:28, NW) "For a deceased soul no one may defile himself among his people. And he should not come to any dead soul."
(Lev. 21:1, 11, NW; also 22:4) "All the days of his keeping separate to Jehovah he may not come toward any dead soul." (Num. 6:6, NW; also 5:2; 6:11; 9:6,7,10) "Anyone touching the corpse of any human soul must then be unclean seven days." —Num. 19:11, also 13, NW; see also Haggai 2:13, where neph'esh ("soul") is generally translated "dead body."
The Bible does not contradict itself. With all those verses plainly speaking of soul death, no wonder you do not find any that says that the human soul cannot die or has immortality. But someone might remark, All those Bible verses are from the ancient Hebrew Scriptures, but is the mortalness of the human soul taught in the Christian Greek Scriptures? For, in Matthew 10:28, did not Jesus say: "Fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul"? Yes, but Jesus also said: "My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death." (Matt. 26:38; Mark 14:34) "They did not love their souls even despite the danger of death [or, souls until death]." (Rev. 12:11, NW, margin) "And a third of the creatures that are in the sea which have souls died." (Rev. 8:9, NW) "And every living soul died in the sea." (Rev. 16:3) Also Jesus' disciple James wrote: "He which converteth the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death." (Jas. 5:20) So Jesus and his disciples did believe in our soul's mortalness.
4 The usual way that clergymen try to uphold the teaching of the immortalness and indestructibleness of the human soul is by quoting only the first half of Matthew 10:28. Why? Because in the last half of the verse Jesus goes on to say: "But rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell." That is to say, fear Almighty God who can destroy the human
soul as well as the human body, in Gehenna. This is the Greek word mistranslated "hell," it not being the same Greek word as hai'des and tar'ta ros, which words the King James Version also translates as "hell."
Jesus at death went to Ha'des or mankind's common grave, but not to Gehenna, for his body was buried in the grave of Joseph the rich man of Arimathea. He was not pitched like a cursed criminal unworthy of a resurrection into Gehenna or the valley of Hinnom to the west and south of the walls of Jerusalem. (Acts 2:27-32, AS; NW) Had Jesus' religious enemies gotten ahold of his dead body first, they might have hurled it over Jerusalem's walls into Gehenna to be burned up there in the continual fires mixed with sulphur or to fall on a projecting ledge and be consumed in the warmth of that fire by worms or maggots that would not die till they had left only his inedible skeleton. Those religious enemies certainly did not want Jesus to be resurrected from Ha'des, which was why they had Governor Pontius Pilate seal the stone-closed tomb and post a soldier guard there to prevent Jesus' body from getting out. But, to symbolize that he was deserving of a resurrection from the dead, Jesus was fittingly laid in a memorial tomb; whereas people whose soul as well as body Almighty God destroys in Gehenna will never have a resurrection from the dead and hence will not live again as souls in God's righteous new world. God destroys their soul in that he hopelessly destroys all opportunity for those in the Gehenna state to enjoy life anywhere again by any means. God does not apply the benefits of Jesus' sacrificial death to them.—Matt. 27:57-66; 28:1-4, 11-15; Acts 4:1, 2; Isa. 53:9; Mark 9:43-48, NW; Yg; Mo.
6 Jesus taught that the human soul is mortal and therefore destructible, killable. He said: "Is it lawful on the sabbath to do a good deed or to do an injury, to save or to kill a soul?" (Mark 3:4 and Luke 6:9, NW) "Remember the wife of Lot. Whoever seeks to keep his soul safe for himself will lose it, but whoever loses it will preserve it alive." (Luke 17:32, 33, NW; Ro, margin) "He that is fond of his soul destroys it, but he that hates his soul in this world will safeguard it for everlasting life." (John 12:25, NW) The apostle Peter showed that Moses foretold Jesus, at Deuteronomy 18:15-19, and said: "Indeed, any soul that does not listen to that Prophet will be completely destroyed from among the people." (Acts 3:22, 23, NW) And at Hebrews 10:39 (NW) we read: "Now we are not the kind that shrink back to destruction, but the kind that have faith to the preserving alive of the soul."
In talking of the soul that way, Jesus and his disciples were in accord with the Hebrew Scriptures, where we read how Israel's judge Joshua acted as Jehovah's executioner of the pagan inhabitants of the Promised Land, as follows: "And Joshua captured Mak-ke'dah . . . As for its king, he devoted him and every soul that was in it to destruction. . . . Jehovah gave [Lib'nah] also and its king into Israel's hand and they went striking it and every soul that was in it with the edge of the sword. They did not let a survivor remain." (Josh. 10:28,30,32,35,37,39;11:11,NW) Moses also said to the Israelite soldiers after they executed the enemy Midianites in war: "Everyone who has killed a soul and everyone who has touched someone slain, you should purify yourselves." (Num. 31:19,
NW) The wise man said: "Whoso committeth adultery with a woman lacketh understanding: he that doeth it destroyeth his own soul." (Prov. 6:32) Other scriptures might be quoted, but enough have been quoted here to prove that both the ancient Hebrew Scriptures and the Christian Greek Scriptures agree that the human soul is subject to destruction at the hands of Almighty God and his executioners.
What great fact now stands out beyond all contradiction? It is this: There is no survival of the human soul after death. That is why the apostle Paul said that, if there were no resurrection of the dead beginning with Jesus Christ, then "those who fell asleep in death in union with Christ perished. If in this life only we [Christians] have hoped in Christ, we are of all men most to be pitied. However, now Christ has been raised up from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep in death. For since death is through a man, resurrection of the dead is also through a man. For just as in Adam all are dying, so also in the Christ all will be made alive." (1 Cor. 15:18-22, NW) There is a difference between "survival after death" and resurrection. In fact, it is because there is no survival after death that there must be a resurrection of the dead. Since there is no survival after death, there being no immortality of the human soul and there being no personality to the spirit in man, the dead in the graves are dead and, to live again in God's new world, they need to be resurrected from the dead. Thus the very foundation of spiritualism must be false and there can be no such thing as communication between the living and the dead. Spiritualism therefore offers a false, misleading comfort to bereaved ones. It subjects them to a deception. It endangers them, for it denies the fall of man into sin, it denies death as the penalty for sin, it denies the need of Christ's ransom sacrifice to remove mankind's sin and gain God's forgiveness of sins, it denies the need of God's kingdom to destroy this wicked system of things and to resurrect the dead and aid them to attain to everlasting life under God's kingdom in the earthly paradise of his righteous new world.
MISTAKEN IDENTITY
This is not saying that spiritualists do not get in touch with an unseen, spirit realm. This is not saying that they do not have authentic phenomena, such as messages received from the invisible, predictions come true of future things, disclosures of knowledge not gained by ordinary means, supernatural movements of objects, and the shaping of ectoplasm from the bodies of mediums into human forms, and other experiences, upon which they chiefly base their belief and teaching. Admittedly such experiences and observed phenomena are a proof of something. Of what? Of an invisible realm with intelligent spirit creatures, but decidedly not of "survival after death" or of communication between the dead and the living. In this respect spiritualism is a case of mistaken identity. By this we mean that spiritualists mistake the identity of the individuals in the spirit realm with whom they communicate by mediums and other means. They think these are human souls once alive on earth but now departed. For their own purposes the spirits do not reveal their true identity but assume an identity that is not theirs.
10 Who, then, are these spirits who communicate with spiritualists? They cannot be immortal souls or spirits of humans who
have died. So since they pretend to be the invisible, living souls of the human dead and thus work a fraud and a deception, they must be lying spirits. They must be demons or devils, who are responsible for what the Bible calls "lying divination" and "lying signs and wonders."—Ezek. 13:6, 7,9;2 Thess.2:9,NW.
11 But, objects the spiritualist, the Bible itself gives an account of communication between the dead and the living, between the faithful prophet Samuel and King Saul of Israel before the battle between the Israelites and the enemy Philistines.
12 In order that we may examine the objection of the spiritualist with all the facts before us, we here publish the entire Bible account as given in the New World Translation:
"Now Samuel himself had died and all Israel had proceeded to bewail him and bury him in Ra'mah his own city. As for Saul, he had removed the spirit mediums and the professional foretellers of events from the land.
"Subsequently the Phi-lis'tines collected together and came and pitched camp in Shu'nem. So Saul collected all Israel together and they pitched camp in Gil-bo'a. When Saul got to see the camp of the Phi-lis'tines he became afraid and his heart began to tremble very much. Although Saul would inquire of Jehovah, Jehovah never answered him, either by dreams or by the U'rim or by the prophets. Finally Saul said to his servants: 'Look for a woman who is a mistress of spirit mediumship for me and let me go to her and consult her.' Then his servants said to him: 'Look! there is a woman who is a mistress of spirit mediumship in En-dor.'
"So Saul disguised himself and clothed himself with other garments and went, he and two men with him, and they came to the woman by night. He now said: 'Employ divination, please, for me by spirit mediumship and bring up for me the one whom I shall designate to you.' However, the woman said to him: 'Here you yourself well know what Saul did, how he cut off the spirit mediums and the professional foretellers of events from the land. Why, then, are you acting like a trapper against my soul to have me put to death?'
Immediately Saul swore to her by Jehovah, saying: 'As Jehovah is alive, guilt for error will not befall you in this matter!' At this the woman said: 'Whom shall I bring up for you?' To this he said: 'Bring up Samuel for me.' When the woman saw 'Samuel' she began crying out at the top of her voice, and the woman went on to say to Saul: 'Why did you trick me when you yourself are Saul?' But the king said to her: 'Do not be afraid, but what did you see?' And the woman went on to say to Saul: 'A god I saw coming up out of the earth.' At once he said to her: 'What is his form?' to which she said: 'It is an old man coming up, and he has himself covered with a sleeveless coat.' At that Saul recognized that it was 'Samuel,' and he proceeded to bow low with his face to the earth and to prostrate himself.
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